A monthly subscription box bringing you accessible, affordable, and carefully curated products from black-owned companies. It encourages the economic exchange among entrepreneurs and businesses within the Black community. Ujamaa Box allows you to support several black owned businesses with one single (or monthly) purchase.

Forget the household name brands you’re used to this holiday. Betty Balaba is a collection of fine jewelry inspired by Africa. Betty’s jewelry is made from 18 carat gold, silver and is set with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and pearls.

This London based company was inspired by her Ugandan heritage, and she designed each piece with careful thought and consderation – each piece is “inspired by Africa, made in England and loved the world over.”

Speaking of protecting your hair, be sure to check out these stylish and cute satin bonnets. They come in various sizes to accomodate any hair length. Now you can protect your hair and sleep pretty in the process. Silky Wraps offers many styles and designs for women and children. They also just started selling satin bedding/décor, so be sure to check them out.

A beautiful head wrap makes any day a “good hair day”. And to make it even better? A head wrap that is already pre-tied. That’s exactly what Constant Covering offers – uniquely designed, stylish and classy head wraps that come ready to wear.

These stylish, handcrafted handbags are made by Julian Gravesande. She decided to mix her love of fashion and handbags to create this one-of-a-kind brand. Shop beautifully crafted clutches, totes and jewelry.

This is a one-of-a-kind customized Swarovski product business, which specializes in custom cell phone and tablet cases. These jeweled creations are hand made by Jamari Jaffe, a wife and mother of three residing in the DC area.

HAIR AND SKINCARE

With over 12 natural hair and skincare products included, Pamela Booker of Koils by Nature offers a premier holiday box that is perfect for any woman in your life. This is a once a year offer, and all come wrapped in a beautiful gift box just for you!

Founder Gwen Jimmere is the first African-American woman to own a patent on a natural hair care product. This is the first ever all-you-need hair care system developed specifically for dry hair. Choose either our Kinky/Coily Edition or our Curly/Wavy Edition based upon your unique hair texture.

I love the tagline: However you rock it – it’s yours! It’s Yours Hair Co. was founded in Chicago, August 2001 from Shawne’s love of natural hairstyling and providing quality human hair to women.

For the last 13 years, Shawne and her husband have grown their business across the US, and globally including Africa, Europe, Australia, and the Caribbean. Since 2001 they’ve offered the finest in human hair textures and now more healthy hair products to complement your look, whether you’re rocking your hair natural, in transition or hair extensions.

Curl Collection is a hair and beauty brand designed to make embracing your natural hair a fun, bold, sexy, and confidence boosting experience. All of their products smell like rich dark chocolate and will arouse your senses making you fall in LUST…ahem, we mean LOVE!! Save 20% off your order with the code BMWK at checkout.

Liquid Courage takes pride in serving the woman that provides meaning and value to her family, occupation, and the community she serves. This cosmetics line focuses on lip sticks and lip lacquers. Take 20% off + free shipping when you enter BMWK at checkout.

B.A.A.B.S. products are a hypoallergenic and cruelty-free professional grade cosmetic line. Their products give great color and long lasting staying power by providing highly pigmented makeup made from high-quality ingredients.

This is a Bath, Body & Candle Studio founded by Shanise Griffith. Choose from three different scents from her holiday gift box collection. These sets can also be gift wrapped and shipped to that special someone! Wax & Lather gift sets are nicely package in a white gift box with a red ribbon! Spend $40 on any order and receive free shipping.

BMWK, What do you want for Christmas and what will make your New Year rock?

About the author

Christine St. Vil wrote 153 articles on this blog.

Christine St.Vil is co-author of the Whose Shoes Are Your Wearing: 12 Steps to Uncovering the Woman You Really Want to Be. A happy wife to an amazing hubby of 8 years, and homeschooling mother of three, she teaches moms how to FLY (First Love Yourself). She uses her corporate background to work with women who are ready to start a new business, accelerate their career growth & design a life they love. She's on a mission to help moms to battle the mom guilt epidemic, so they can begin to put themselves first on their never-ending list of priorities.

Money Articles Delivered To Your Inbox Daily! Sign up below!

Money Monday: Why You Need a Wealth Building Army Working for You

The sad truth is that few people will ever get rich working a 9 to 5. It’s just that simple. Your earning potential is severely restricted by one crucial factor, – TIME. We essentially trade time for money, and since time is a finite quantity, so too is the amount of money we can earn.

An hourly employee is constrained by the fact that there are only so many hours in a day. Even working 24 hours around the clock, there is a limit to how much she can bring home. A salaried employee has it just as bad because companies tend to make insane demands of their time.

Consequently, gaining financial freedom from a working a 9 to 5 is nearly impossible.

You can’t do it alone.

You need an army to help build your financial empire.

You need helpers who’ll multiply your effort and work non-stop, around the clock building your financial empire, even while you’re sleeping.

The wealthy have such helpers. They make their money work for them. Let’s be clear, they force their money to grind incessantly to bring in rich returns.

In the financial classic, The Richest Man in Babylon, the principle character, Arkad, admonishes his friends to “…learn to make your treasure work for you. Make it your slave. Make its children and its children’s children work for you”

You make your money work for you by investing in stocks, bonds, real estate, and your own businesses. Through the magic of compound interest your money grows you more money. Your money births children who beget grandchildren and great grandchildren, – all of whom slave away feverishly building your wealth.

But in order to make your money work for you, you have to be careful not to spend all of it. You must put away a portion of every paycheck. This is the seed you’ll need to create your wealth building army.

Best selling author and life coach Tony Robbins claims that the smartest thing he every did with his money was pay himself first by setting aside a portion of his income in order to build a critical mass of money that could work for him.

Financial guru, David Bach has even written a book, the Automatic Millionaire, which stresses the importance of paying yourself first.

Typically you should try to put away 10% of your income so that this money can become your slave, working to build your wealth. But even if you’re not in a position to sock away 10%, it’s important to put away something.

If you have to, start small. Sock away 1% of your salary and then gradually increase the amount you save until you reach the 10% goal. The important thing is that you start building your wealth building army today.